BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. is contemplating filing a civil suit against those behind the power outage that hit Panay Island and other parts of Western Visayas.
Defensor said the findings of the Senate and House of Representatives inquiries will be relevant to the suit. Data and testimonies of witnesses may be necessary to support the legal action.
How will a class suit prosper? What are the requisites in filing such legal action?
The filing of a civil suit is governed by Rule 3, Section 12 of the Rules of Court, to wit:
“When the subject matter of the controversy is one of common or general interest to many persons so numerous that it is impracticable to join all as parties, a number of them which the court finds to be sufficiently numerous and representative as to fully protect the interests of all concerned may sue or defend for the benefit of all. Any party in interest shall have the right to intervene to protect his interest.”
In a case relative to the request of the heirs of the passengers of ferry MV Doña Paz that sank after colliding with an oil tanker in 1987, the Supreme Court provided the requisites for a class suit to prosper.
First, the subject matter in controversy is of common or general interest to many persons. Second, those persons involved are “so numerous as to make it impracticable to bring them all before the court.”
“What makes the situation a proper case for a class suit is the circumstance that there is only one right or cause of action pertaining or belonging in common to many persons, not separately or severally to distinct individuals,” the High Court said.
The object of the suit, the tribunal said, is meant to “obtain relief for or against numerous persons as a group or as an integral entity, and not as separate, distinct individuals whose rights or liabilities are separate from and independent of those affecting the others.”
The High Court stressed that for a class suit to be allowed, the parties should be “so numerous” that it would be impractical to bring them all before the court.
However, the High Court emphasized that class suits are not the same as citizens’ and taxpayers’ suits.
In the case of Mamba versus Lara, the tribunal discussed the requirements of a taxpayer’s suit.
A taxpayer is allowed to sue where there is a claim that public funds are illegally disbursed, that the public money is being deflected to any improper purpose, or that there is a wastage of public funds through the enforcement of an invalid or unconstitutional law.
A person suing as a taxpayer, however, must show that the act complained of directly involves the illegal disbursement of public funds derived from taxation.
He must also prove that he has sufficient interest in preventing the illegal expenditure of money raised by taxation and that he will sustain a direct injury because of the enforcement of the questioned statute or contract.
In other words, for a taxpayer’s suit to prosper, two requisites must be complied with. First, public funds derived from taxation are disbursed by a political subdivision or instrumentality, and in doing so, a law is violated or some irregularity is committed.
Secondly, the petitioner is directly affected by the alleged act./PN
